Michael H. Fasullo Jr. shared his story with us in December of 2011. Having accepted a teaching position in Brentwood he arrived with a passion for physics and a love for imparting it to his students. He was greeted with culture shock. Fast forward several years and offered a chance to move to administration he accepted the challenge; this after after having been active in the BTA and an Executive Committee member. The first day students arrived, a young woman walked into his office and proceeded to be sick on his shoes. Therein began a story of survival and redemption which led Mike to seriously consider leaving the profession he loved. Then in 1984 Part 100 came about changing policies and requirements throughout the entire school system. He became Coordinator of Secondary Planning and the roof fell in as a tree literally came crashing through his office. He worked full time negotiating contracts with Les Black, holding successive titles culminating in that of Assistant Superintendent from the 1990’s to 2002. As he talked we touched on many subjects including Guy DiPietro, Superintendents Hearings, an accusation of bigotry, a classic Stan Yankowski story as well as a serious one. Mike recalled Lou Rabinowitz, Bill Muledy, John Leeman, and Jeff Goldschmidt from his early days. We talked about Brentwood and the best thing about it being “the people”. We talked about categories of students, attendance rates and the 42% turnover rate in the district each year, teacher performance, the union, NCLB. He considered teachers in his early days being like Monks, gifting children with what they did best and backed by parents. They were he said,  “the most hard working, dedicated child centered professionals that ever existed.”but pass it along.